Chesapeake sheriff’s deputies will serve as School Resource Officers in the division’s elementary schools this year. The partnership between the school division and the Sheriff’s office was presented during Monday’s school board meeting.
Superintendent Jared Cotton told the board that the school division will pay $828,000 to cover salary and vehicle costs for eight deputies who will rotate among Chesapeake’s 28 elementary schools, which have been divided into “boroughs,” or groups of 3-5 schools. Funding will come from pandemic relief funds, Cotton said.
“This partnership with the Sheriff’s Office represents a significant step forward in our continuous efforts to provide a safe and nurturing environment for all students within our schools,” Cotton said in a press release issued from the division last week.
The school division has been exploring options to add security coverage to elementary schools since the spring. School officials have said the city’s police department provides SROs for the division’s middle and high schools, but does not have enough officers to cover elementary schools. The division also considered the option of arming its own security officers, and in May the board approved revised policies to allow the change if needed.
The press release said the deputies will receive the same training that police officers serving in the middle and high schools receive.
School Board Member Mike Lamonea, who is also a member of the executive committee of the Mayor’s Safety Task Force, helped coordinate the partnership.
“As a School Board member, former law enforcement leader, and CPS parent, I am proud to be part of a district that prioritizes school safety and can’t thank Sheriff O’Sullivan enough for his partnership to see this vision through,” Lamonea said in the press release.
Chesapeake Sheriff Jim O’Sullivan attended Monday’s board meeting, along with the deputies who will be serving as SROs. O’Sullivan said he is excited about the partnership, which he said will also give children positive first interactions with law enforcement “to show them we are the good guys and good girls.”
“We’re there to help them if they have a problem,” he said.
Nour Habib, [email protected]
